Veteran left homeless after contractor allegedly takes insurance money, leaves home gutted
KLTV By Bob Hallmark September 18, 2019 KILGORE, Texas (KLTV) - An East Texas veteran says he’s in a no-win situation in trying to repair his home after a contractor left him high and dry.
Back in March, the south side of Kilgore was hit by a massive storm damaging hundreds of homes.
The victim in this case, a Vietnam veteran, says he relied on his insurance to rebuild his shattered home. But instead, what happened in the months that followed left him homeless.
Most of the homes in south Kilgore along Layton Street that were damaged in the March storms have been repaired, except one, belonging to Vietnam veteran Don Greathouse home for 42 years.
Going through his insurance company, Greathouse hired a contractor, Preston McGinnis, to rebuild. But then things began to go wrong.
“He had promised me that he’d have it back up in two months. I have emailed him and called him since the middle of April. Got no response and he vanished,” Greathouse says.
"The house has been totally taken down to studs by the contractor we had," says daughter Renee Stevens.
Preston McGinnis was arrested and taken to Gregg County Jail. (Source: Gregg County Jail)
Dramatic body camera video shows officers catch man who jumped off bridge
WSMV News Emily Van de Riet, Digital Content Producer Sep 18, 2019
(Meredith) – Newly-released body camera video shows officers in Tennessee clinging onto a man who jumped off a bridge.
The officers who saved the man in April are now being recognized for their quick actions.
Knox County Deputy Brian Rehg and Knoxville Police Lieutenant Chris McCarter both said they were at the right place at the right time.
Rehg, a 13-year police veteran, said he is used to being called to a scene after something tragic has already happened, but he’s not used to a situation where he saves someone from jumping.
“After 13 years of service and seeing all kinds of things, to actually save somebody like that… it feels good,” Rehg told WATE. read it here
There is a challenge we face everyday and it is about "22 veterans committing suicide." It is not the kind of battle you may think it is. It is the battle to get them to shut the hell up and start doing what will make a difference for our veterans!
I kept thinking that one day people will pay enough attention to all of this that they will actually do something to change what is going on. Years later, I am still waiting for that day when none of this is acceptable to anyone. We keep reading about all the stunts talking about veterans committing suicide, but no stunts to prove to the that anyone really cares. The publicity seekers and fundraisers are poor babies! They suffer doing their 22 pushups, as if that would stop a veteran from not wanting to live one more day. We have all the BS coming out of Washington about how important veterans are, and with another election coming up, we're hearing a lot more of it piled onto all the other crap we heard before. Nothing changes for the better because people do not pay enough attention to ever consider how we got here. If you want to know, then you need to know what was done back in the the 70's, especially if you were not even born back then. We didn't have reporters telling our stories, or stunts getting mass attention on social media. We didn't have social media or even computers in our homes. Forget cell phones because we were still using phone booths and looking up numbers in phone books! Yet for our generation, we knew what worked and we stuck with it until some yahoo decided that we did not know anything, if we suffered at all, which, apparently, they ignored until it happened to them. "Staffing at Vet Centers lagging" was the headline on April 20, 2007 reported by Greg Zoroya for USA Today. Zoroya reported that in 2006, 21,681 veterans visited these centers just from Afghanistan and Iraq wars. According to the VA at the time those numbers went from 8,965 in 2004, to 13,307 in 2005 all the way up to that number. There were a lot of numbers in this report. Among them was the fact that veterans from all wars were using these centers because of outreach efforts. In 2004 it was 125,737, but by 2006 it was 228,612. According to the VA, the number of veterans using the Vet Centers jumped. "298,576 Veterans, active duty service members (including Guard and Reservists) and their families received readjustment counseling at VA’s 300 Vet Centers, totaling more than 1.9 million visits in Fiscal Year 2018."
That shows how important these centers were way back then and still are. Veteran Centers are more welcoming than the VA facilities. Most veterans do not know the centers are part of the VA and find it easier to walk in looking for support. Back then, we knew what worked because we lived with the reality of all of it. Strange how so many people are talking about the heartbreaking outcomes for far too many families, but too few are talking about what needs to be done. This was and still is, peer support on steroids. They also helped families, like mine. It was the Vet Center in Boston encouraging my husband to seek help dealing with PTSD at the VA way back in the early 90's and offered support to me as well. While the VA, and almost everyone else, understood the value of having these centers, apparently the Bush Administration did not. As with most administrations, they have to rely on advisers clewing them in. Like most Presidents, they were ill advised, much like is happening now.
"Last year, the White House proposed cutting $47 million from the $3.3 billion budget for veterans readjustment benefits. Two congressional committees agreed, but the Republican-controlled Congress didn't pass a final spending bill."
The thing is, back then what worked, did not cost as much as what has failed ever since.
"The Vet Centers are small, storefront operations with a staff of four to five people each. The centers were created in 1979 to help Vietnam War veterans readjust to society. Services included combat stress counseling, marriage therapy, job assistance and medical referrals."
But the VA went above all that to create Mobile Vet Centers and a Vet Call Center.
Vet Center Call Center
1-877-WAR VETS (1.877.927.8387) is an around the clock confidential call center where combat Veterans and their families can call to talk about their military experience or any other issue they are facing in their readjustment to civilian life. The staff is comprised of combat Veterans from several eras as well as family members of combat Veterans. The service is free for combat Veterans and their families so they may find resources they need at their nearest Vet Center.
Now we have higher rates of suicides within the military and in the veteran community. We have families falling apart and being left out of all the "new groups" screaming about suicides while ignoring the fact the majority of the veterans killing themselves. They survived all these years without being made aware they were killing themselves, but now have become the majority of those ending their pain by ending their lives instead of doing whatever it took to heal their lives.
Maybe these celebrities will think of a way to change the conversation to something that may actually help them fight for themselves instead of reminding them how many they think lost their battle today...but I doubt it.
update Commands Protect Troops and Fail Families in Domestic Abuse Cases, Victims Say
Military.com By Patricia Kime 19 Sep 2019
For three years, Kate Ranta said she endured escalating abuse at the hands of her husband, Air Force Maj. Thomas Maffei.
The alleged violence began when the couple lived in military housing at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and, she said, became worse after they moved to Florida, where Maffei planned to retire. One day after a fight, she said, Maffei grabbed a gun and the couple's two-year-old and left home, only to return a short time later to convince the police that he was a war veteran who had been injured in an IED blast in Iraq. It was a lie, Ranta says. Maffei hadn't seen combat and was, in fact, still on active duty, having forged moving orders and leaving his unit in the Washington, D.C., area without retiring. After the incident, she reported him to his command, launching a lengthy Air Force Office of Special Investigations case, which concluded that he should face a court-martial. read it here
Is military domestic violence a ‘forgotten crisis’?
Military Times By: Leo Shane III September 18, 2019
Wednesday’s hearing included testimony from a series of abuse victims who said their problems were exacerbated by military leadership, instead of receiving help and support.
Members from Fleet and Family Support Center promote the resources they offer to help with managing stress on Nov. 20, 2018, at Portsmouth, Va. (Petty Officer 1st Class Laura Myers/Navy)
House lawmakers are blasting defense officials for allowing domestic abuse to become “a forgotten crisis” in the military, saying not enough has been done to protect victims, punish attackers or even track the issue.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., chairwoman of House Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, said she is looking at possible legislative changes on the topic, to include mandating a higher level of command review for any criminal abuse and required reports on how cases have been handled.
“Military spouses are often isolated, living far from friends or family and unfamiliar with local resources,” she said at a hearing on the topic Wednesday, “It’s unfortunately easy to see how these conditions can make domestic violence possible, more dangerous, and persistent. read it here
Former nurse charged for allegedly stealing morphine from dying veterans
ABC News By ELLA TORRES Sep 18, 2019
In one case, a veteran experienced increased difficulties breathing and increased suffering in his final days, federal prosecutors said, citing its investigation into the matter.
A former hospice nurse has been accused of ingesting morphine that was meant for dying veterans and, in turn, causing increased suffering for some of the patients in their last days, officials said Wednesday.
Kathleen Noftle, 55, was arrested and charged for offenses she allegedly committed while working at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in Bedford, Massachusetts, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in the state.
Noftle admitted to authorities that she mixed water from the sink with a portion of the liquid morphine to dilute the drug three times in January 2017, then gave the watered-down version to veterans and ingested the remaining amount for herself, according to the attorney’s office.
The investigation also revealed that before Noftle worked at the VA center in Bedford, she resigned from her position as a nurse at a different hospital because she did not follow protocol when throwing out narcotics on 60 occasions. read it here
